In this section

COLLEGIATE CHURCH OF ST. JOHN

A late tradition, unverifiable but not implausible,
ascribes the foundation of St. John's to Æthelred,
king of Mercia (674–704), in 689. (fn. 1) Other information
on the pre-Conquest church is scarce. King Edgar is
said to have prayed in the minster (monasterium) of St.
John in 973, and in the reign of Edward the Confessor
it was enriched with 'precious ornaments' by Earl
Leofric (d. 1057). (fn. 2) To those details may be added the
survival of some scraps of physical evidence: some 40
coins from the reign of Edward the Elder (899–924),
found just west of the present church, (fn. 3) and fragments
of several crosses, probably memorials dating from the
10th century, recovered from St. John's churchyard
and among the rubble of the collapsed tower in the late
19th century (Fig. 68, p. 126). (fn. 4) The crosses, and others
from Wirral and north Wales, were probably made at a
workshop based on St. John's, using stone from the
nearby quarry. (fn. 5) Such evidence suggests that St. John's
was an important church in later Anglo-Saxon Chester.
Certainly by 1086 it was a collegiate foundation served
by a dean (matricularius) and seven canons, who held
eight houses in the city exempt from customary dues. (fn. 6)
It was sited in the episcopal manor of 'Redcliff', and as
the bishop's principal church in a city where he had
considerable rights and possessions before 1066 it may
already have housed an episcopal stool. (fn. 7)

A further indication of the early importance of St.
John's is its possession of burial rights within the city
and its environs. (fn. 8) In the late 12th century agreements
were made with the monks of St. Werburgh's to
preserve their common privileges. The two communities allowed St. John's hospital outside the Northgate
to have a graveyard but restricted burial there to the
brethren and poor of that house. The nuns of Chester
were permitted to bury within their precinct on
condition that the two communities provided the
ministers and took two thirds of the offerings, and
that the nuns did not invite Chester residents to be
buried among them. Similar agreements were made
with the friars as the occasion arose.

Those burial rights presumably dated from before
1100, and together with the fact that the church was
collegiate by 1086 imply that St. John's was a church of
high status, founded at an early period, and probably
royal, with income from and pastoral duties initially
over a large territory. (fn. 9) The extent of that early 'parish'
is uncertain, but almost certainly it was mainly extramural. When first recorded, St. John's parochial
responsibilities within the walls were restricted to a
small area around the Newgate, presumably the location of the eight houses mentioned in 1086; outside the
walls, however, they included much of the eastern part
of the liberties around Boughton, besides a few fields in
Hoole township outside the city boundary. (fn. 10)

After the Conquest St. John's became briefly the
principal church of Lichfield diocese. In 1075 Bishop
Peter formally moved his see to Chester, but by 1102,
and probably as early as 1087, his successor Robert de
Limesey had removed to Coventry. (fn. 11) Nevertheless, the
bishop and archdeacon retained residences within the
precincts of St. John's; (fn. 12) presumably it was not immediately clear that Limesey's move had definitively
ended the bishop's close association with the church,
though by the time of Bishop Stavensby (1224–38) the
chapter of St. John's had abandoned any rights in
episcopal elections. (fn. 13) St. John's remained the headquarters of the local ecclesiastical administration: ordinations were usually held there, and one of the canons
was often archdeacon. In the 16th century wills were
usually proved at the church before the archdeacon's
official, and in 1386 it was the location of a sitting of the
Earl Marshal's court hearing the heraldic dispute
between Sir Richard Scrope and Sir Robert Grosvenor. (fn. 14)

Figure 68:

Anglo-Saxon crosses at St. John's church

By the 12th century the precinct included other
churches and chapels as well as the bishop's residence.
A 'basilica' dedicated to St. Mary, outside the walls and
near St. John's, to which in the late 12th century there
was a choral procession from St. John's on Sundays
and holy days, was presumably the minster (monasterium) of St. Mary which in 1086 lay in the same area. (fn. 15)
Another apparently subordinate institution was the
chapel of St. James, which by the late 12th century
was associated with an anchorite and believed locally to
be the last refuge of King Harold after his defeat at
Hastings. (fn. 16) Its status is uncertain. Described as a chapel
and held by the dean in 1341, (fn. 17) in 1589 it was termed
the 'old parish church or chapel'. (fn. 18) Anchorites were
supplied to a hermitage 'by the church' or 'below the
graveyard' between 1342 and 1363 by the Cheshire
monasteries of Vale Royal, Norton, and Birkenhead. (fn. 19)
The anchorite's chapel was held in 1549 by Robert
Bowyer, the first vicar of St. John's after the Dissolution. It was probably the earlier 14th-century oratory
on a rock beside the quarry south of St. John's (Fig.
69), which was reputed an anchorite's cell in the later
16th century, by which time the Chester Shoemakers'
guild met in it. (fn. 20)

The early endowments of St. John's are difficult to
determine. In 1086 it apparently had only the small
manor of 'Redcliff', but that may simply reflect the
integration of the church's holdings with the
bishop's. (fn. 21) Fresh grants are recorded in the 13th century. (fn. 22) By the later Middle Ages the church had
intramural property near Bridgegate and in the
Crofts, as well as around Newgate, (fn. 23) but the bulk of
its possessions lay around the precinct in St. John's
Lane and Foregate Street, (fn. 24) or scattered through the
town fields. (fn. 25) The church's annual income in the early
13th century was probably over £250, and it benefited
also from local patronage. (fn. 26) Philip of Orby, justice of
Chester c. 1208–29, founded a chantry with two
chaplains. (fn. 27) Later tradition ascribed to his foundation
the grant of the churches of Overchurch, Guilden
Sutton, and two in Chester, St. Martin's and St.
Bridget's, though at least some of them may already
have been connected with St. John's. (fn. 28) Orby's family
was long associated with the church. In 1258 or 1259
his son Philip gave three salt-houses in Northwich, and
the family continued to appoint chantry priests until
the death of Sir John Orby before 1354 left his
daughter and heir Joan as a ward of the Black Prince. (fn. 29)

Figure 69:

Anchorite's chapel

Although in the 12th century canons of St. John's
subscribed local charters, by the 14th they had become
largely absentee and appeared at visitations only by
proxy. Their choir duties were performed by eight
vicars. (fn. 30) By the 13th century there was also a sacristan
appointed by the dean and responsible for the discipline of the vicars. (fn. 31) The senior of the two cantarists of
the Orby chantry, the petty canon as he became known,
came to be regarded as the leading figure among the
lesser clergy. He enjoyed a large income and was often
of the same social standing as the canons. (fn. 32)

From the 13th century St. John's reputation was
enhanced by the possession of an important relic, the
so-called Rood of Chester. It existed by 1256 or 1257,
when Fulk of Orby provided a mark of silver annually
for lights before it, (fn. 33) and appears to have been enshrined
in a golden cross-shaped reliquary adorned with an
image. (fn. 34) It was so greatly venerated both in the locality
and much further afield that in the late 13th and early
14th century St. John's was known as the church of the
Holy Cross. (fn. 35)

In 1291 St. John's derived its income almost wholly
from spiritualities. (fn. 36) By 1318 it held the appropriated
benefices of Farndon, Holt (Denb.), Shocklach, Guilden Sutton, and Overchurch, and of St. Martin's, St.
Bridget's, and St. Chad's in Chester. (fn. 37) Three or four of
those had been acquired in the 13th century with the
establishment of the Orby chantry, and others probably
much earlier; in 1352, for example, the dean alleged
that Farndon and the chapelries of Holt and Shocklach
had been annexed to his deanery 'time out of mind'. (fn. 38)
All except Holt and St. Chad's remained attached to St.
John's until the Dissolution. (fn. 39) In addition the college
acquired the Cheshire benefices of Stoke, appropriated
in 1349, (fn. 40) and Plemstall, transferred by Shrewsbury
abbey in 1382 and appropriated in 1393. All the livings
were served by stipendiary curates drawn from the
lesser clergy, except Plemstall, where the bishop
ordained a vicarage a decade after the appropriation. (fn. 41)

Other sources of income included the parish tithes,
glebe, (fn. 42) and offerings to the Rood, which in the 14th
century amounted to perhaps £70 a year and constituted the biggest single item. (fn. 43) From the late 13th
century there were also occasional profits from ecclesiastical justice, some of which involved payments to
maintain the fabric. (fn. 44)

The canons were paid from a common fund, and
there were increasing difficulties about their entitlements. In 1318 income was divided into three main
groups: the great tithes, annexed to the deanery, and
the profits from the glebe, divided equally between the
dean and the canons of the fifth and sixth stalls;
offerings to the Rood and the altarage of St. John's,
devoted primarily to the vicars' stipends and the
resident canons' commons, with the remainder distributed weekly among the chapter; and revenues from
the appropriated churches, divided among members of
the chapter resident in the previous year. (fn. 45) Provision for
the lesser clergy was inadequate, and in the 14th
century the bishop increasingly intervened on their
behalf. After his visitation of 1331, Bishop Northburgh
enjoined that the vicars should be removed only with
his consent, that their salaries be paid at the customary
times, and that they be provided with a common
dwelling and meanwhile have the right to lodge in
the canons' houses. He also ordered that part of the
offerings to the Rood be set aside to buy new vestments
and ornaments. (fn. 46) In 1346 he further directed that the
vicars' stipends be increased and that four choristers be
appointed to assist them in singing the offices. (fn. 47) Those
injunctions were disregarded, and by 1348 the canons'
determination to maintain their incomes had brought
the fabric to near ruin and reduced the vicars' stipends
to such an extent that services were endangered. (fn. 48) In his
visitation of that year Bishop Northburgh found the
church in disrepair, the books, vestments, and ornaments consumed with age, and his regulations about
the vicars ignored. He restricted the incomes of the
dean and canons for the following 10 years, and
ordered that each newly installed member of the
chapter should contribute to the cost of new vestments
and ornaments. He also attempted to reform the
college's finances, and annulled the long leases by
which the chapter had farmed out not only the
appropriated rectories but also their shares of the
common fund. (fn. 49)

In 1349, perhaps in response to the bishop's strictures, Sir Peter Rutter, lord of the manor of Thornton
le Moors, granted the dean and chapter the church of
Stoke in return for the establishment of a perpetual
chantry. Its two chaplains, to be chosen by the dean,
were also to join the vicars in celebrating the offices. (fn. 50)
After complaints by some of the vicars, the bishop
made further injunctions in 1353 to ensure that their
incomes were paid regularly and improved, (fn. 51) but the
matter was clearly not entirely settled and was the
subject of additional regulation at the metropolitan
visitation of 1400. (fn. 52)

Such pressure from the bishop provoked dissension
within the chapter. In 1347 the dean ordered, with the
bishop's approval, that the offerings and small tithes of
Farndon, Shocklach, Holt, St. Bridget's, and St.
Martin's were to be devoted to augmenting the
vicars' stipends. (fn. 53) His action changed the arrangements
of 1318 and brought to a head the question of the
dean's rights over the appropriated churches. The two
or three canons apparently resident at the time claimed
that the revenues from those churches should be
collected by one of their number and divided among
them. The dean disagreed, and both sides appealed to
the Black Prince. The disputed revenues were seized
into the prince's hand, and the collegiate clergy, left
without income, threatened to leave St. John's. (fn. 54)

Conspicuous in the lawsuit was the assumption, also
made in 1318, that Overchurch, Guilden Sutton, and
the Chester churches were to provide for the college as
a whole and not simply for the Orby chantry; but in
1352 the cantarist sued at Canterbury for his full rights
as a canon of St. John's and the court gave sentence in
his favour. (fn. 55) In 1354 the Black Prince intervened as
guardian of the Orby heiress to protect the chantry's
interests, ordering that the salary of one of its chaplains
be paid, but conceding that the churches associated
with Orby's grant were never exclusively appropriated
to the chantry. (fn. 56) The dean eventually won a partial
victory. In 1397 he still retained Farndon, Shocklach,
Overchurch, and Plemstall, leaving the canons only
Guilden Sutton and the Chester churches. (fn. 57) Thereafter,
however, his position was eroded, and by the 1530s
only Plemstall remained appropriated to the deanery. (fn. 58)

In 1353 and 1354, in the midst of those disputes,
two successive deans exchanged the deanery for other
benefices. The beneficiary of the later transaction was
challenged in 1357 by Alexander Dalby, a royal clerk
who based his claims on a papal provision and was
confirmed in the deanery in 1359. (fn. 59) Dalby came to a
church facing increasing financial difficulties. Income
fell to c. £220 by 1393 and to little more than £100 in
the early 15th century. (fn. 60) The chapter's continued
leasing of the tithes of the appropriated churches
probably contributed to that decline, for it seems
rarely to have received a fair rent. (fn. 61) Another factor
was the reduction in offerings to the Rood, which had
fallen to c. £50 by the early 16th century. (fn. 62) In the
circumstances it is not surprising that some of the
institutions for which the dean and chapter had earlier
been responsible apparently lapsed. One such was the
grammar school, in existence by 1353 when the master
and boys attended services in a chapel dedicated to the
Virgin situated in St. John's churchyard and popularly
known as the White chapel. (fn. 63) Nothing further is
recorded of the school, which had disappeared by the
16th century. (fn. 64)

Despite such difficulties, St. John's retained its role
in civic life. Apparently from the 13th century it was
the scene of ceremonies connected with the licensing of
minstrels, and in the 15th century the guild procession
for the feast of Corpus Christi finished at the church. (fn. 65)
The Rood was still venerated in the 15th century, and
the cult had even spread to Bordeaux. (fn. 66) At home, gifts
continued to be made to it throughout the later Middle
Ages: a ring in 1467, £20 from the son of a former
mayor in 1489, and five large candles from an alderman in 1505, for example. (fn. 67) Its advocacy was still valued
in the early 16th century, when a man from Winwick
(Lancs.) left 6s. 8d. to anyone willing to undertake a
pilgrimage to the Rood on his behalf, and the courtier
William Smith caused three gold marks to be offered
for the soul of his late master, Henry VII. (fn. 68) As late as
1518 Nicholas Deykin made provision for a priest to
celebrate at the altar of the Holy Rood for eight years
after his death. (fn. 69) The relic remained sufficiently important for three or four of the canons' stalls to be known
as prebends of the Holy Cross. (fn. 70)

St. John's also continued to attract chantry endowments, presumably because the vicars could readily be
employed for services commemorating the dead. (fn. 71) By the
16th century the vicars had accumulated considerable
holdings given to finance such services and known as the
obit lands, (fn. 72) though many bequests were for temporary
commemorations. In 1398, for example, John Hatton
gave £20 for a chaplain to say mass for four years, and in
1518 Nicholas Deykin left £45 for a priest to celebrate at
St. Catherine's altar. Both probably expected collegiate
vicars to be employed as cantarists. (fn. 73)

The guild or fraternity of St. Anne, which had close
links with the vicars, was apparently founded in 1361
and refounded in 1393. (fn. 74) The wardens or masters seem
often to have been drawn from the clergy of St. John's:
between 1396 and 1420, for example, they included
Ranulph Scolehall, chaplain of the Orby chantry. (fn. 75) The
fraternity's own chantry seems originally to have been
within the collegiate church, but presumably after the
refoundation a separate building was established in the
precinct east of St. John's. (fn. 76)

In the 1530s the college's income was somewhat over
£150, still principally from the appropriated churches
and the Rood, the latter contributing a third of the
total. The value of the canons' prebends had fallen, and
the position of the vicars was relatively improved; by
then they drew more than the canons from the
common fund. The petty canon, with almost £16 a
year, enjoyed an income second only to the dean's. The
canons thus had little incentive to reside. (fn. 77) In the mid
1530s the college sustained a major financial loss with
the removal of the Rood. (fn. 78) In response Bishop Rowland Lee, at the instance of Thomas Cromwell, in 1539
reduced the lesser clergy to two conducts, four vicars
choral, and four chantry priests. (fn. 79) The changes
improved the lot of the remaining vicars, (fn. 80) but also
occasioned resentment. Two of them 'withdrew certain
plate' and obtained a letter from Cromwell supporting
their claim to have been wronged by the dean and
chapter. The petty canon's chantry suffered especially;
in 1539 Peter Brereton, the petty canon, complained
that revenue was wrongfully withheld and that one of
the chantry priests had been unjustly expelled. He
petitioned the king, and c. 1542 the dean, Richard
Walker, replied alleging that he had suspended the
disputed payments since the removal of the Rood and
the loss of the oblations. (fn. 81) The petty canon's chantry
seems to have been suppressed in 1543, when its
endowments were leased to the founder's heir, Richard
Brereton, in whose hands they remained in 1557. (fn. 82)

Standards of behaviour among the lesser clergy were
not exemplary in the period before the Dissolution. In
1536 four of the vicars were found to be unchaste, (fn. 83)
and probably in the 1540s the two chantry priests of St.
Anne's, William Horseman and Thomas Pyncheware, (fn. 84)
allegedly broke into and damaged houses adjoining the
fraternity's building. (fn. 85)

The creation of the bishopric of Chester in 1541
provided a fresh threat to St. John's. The archdeacon's
court, hitherto held in the collegiate church, was
removed in that year to the cathedral. (fn. 86) Although
the dean's claim to be exempt from the authority of
the new bishop was recognized in 1542, the privilege was
soon lost. (fn. 87) Thereafter, the college seems to have feared
the worst, and disposed of property in a series of very
long leases. (fn. 88) Finally in 1547 or 1548 the college, with its
staff of dean, seven canons (five with livings elsewhere),
and four vicars, was dissolved. The appropriated
churches, the prebendal lands and other property
in Chester, the obit lands, the chantry rents, and
the possessions of the fraternity of St. Anne were all
taken into the king's hands. The whole east limb of
the church and four bells also fell to the king. (fn. 89)

Figure 70:

St. John's church, nave looking east, 1858

The design of the Romanesque east end, probably of
four bays with eastern towers terminating in three
apses, suggests that it was begun c. 1100 under
Bishop Limesey; it is related to other west Midland
churches of that date, such as Shrewsbury, Hereford,
and Much Wenlock. Work was then interrupted, to
resume between c. 1125 and c. 1150, perhaps with a
reduced scheme incorporating a central tower, transepts, a nave of six bays, and a west bay with north and
south towers. By 1200 construction appears to have
reached roof level as far as the east end of the nave, but
further west only the arcades and perhaps the lower
parts of the aisle walls had been built. The nave triforia
appear to date from c. 1200, and the clerestories,
surviving aisle windows, north doorway, and porch
from the early 13th century. (fn. 90)

In the late 13th century a square building of two
storeys was built in the angle between the chancel aisle
and the south transept; perhaps a chapter house, in the
16th century it was described as the house of the
'church priests'. (fn. 91) After its completion, however, the
fabric of the church seems to have been neglected, and
in 1349 repairs were deemed necessary. (fn. 92) It was perhaps
about then that the east end was remodelled, probably
to accommodate the increasing number of chantries.
The work comprised a polygonal Lady chapel flanked
by square-ended chapels to north and south; stonevaulted and richly carved, it was closely related to
contemporary work in the south transept of the
abbey and to parts of the chancel and north transept
at Nantwich. (fn. 93)

St. John's seems generally to have remained in poor
condition, and in 1415 the dean and chapter were
granted a royal licence to collect alms for the rebuilding of the church and college, then described as
ruinous. (fn. 94) Building and repair continued almost to
the Dissolution: in 1463 and 1471 the church roof
was referred to as newly covered, (fn. 95) and between 1518
and 1523 the north-west tower was rebuilt. (fn. 96) The
church, however, probably remained incomplete.
There seems never to have been a central tower, and
it is unlikely that the west front was finished to the
original designs, which would not have accommodated the spiral staircase inserted south of the northwest tower. Nevertheless, the nave was certainly longer
than at present by at least one bay, for the west wall
cuts through the arches of the triforium and arcade. (fn. 97)

Figure 71:

St. John's, plan (Arch. Jnl. xciv, facing p. 306)

At its dissolution the church stood in a sizeable
precinct (Fig. 72, p. 132), which included to the east
the irregular and perhaps courtyarded building of the
St. Anne's fraternity, and to the south the large chapel
of St. James and a small anchorite's cell. A further
chapel, the Calvercroft chapel, was also probably a
separate structure. (fn. 98) All around were the clergy houses,
including those of the bishop, dean, canons, vicars,
and cantarists; other houses for the vicars lay just
outside the precinct on Vicars Lane. Most of those
buildings survived the dissolution. The chapels of the
anchorite, Calvercroft, and St. James, the last put to
use as a store, were held by the first parochial vicar;
the fraternity house passed to Sir Hugh Cholmondeley, one of the royal commissioners; the dean's house
was taken by Hugh Glazier, mayor of Chester 1602–3;
and another clergy house was occupied by Alexander
Cotes, an early lay rector. All later disappeared,
probably destroyed in the Civil War siege of Chester.
St. John's itself survived as a parish church after the
Dissolution. (fn. 99)

St. John's church and precinct, 17th-century plan
key: The key to the plan is lost, but other plans by the same hand record the less obvious features:
k: north porch
l: small house adjoining north porch
m: St. James's chapel
n (at east end): the Lady chapel ('a fine little chapel or the sancta sanctorum, part ruinated')
n (east of north transept): 'a little low chapel'.
o: a house added to the north transept, reputedly the meeting house of the 'woollen and linen websters'
q, r: a house or some chambers belonging to the college priests.

Footnotes

1. B.L. Harl. MS. 2071, p. 3; R. Higden, Holy Life and Hist. of
St. Werburg (Chetham Soc. [o.s.], xv), 86; Ann. Cest. 10. All cite a
lost work of Gerald of Wales. Thanks are offered to the rector of
Chester and the Revd. D. Gale for making the church available
for inspection, to Mr. E. Rimington, conservation assistant,
Chester district cl., for describing recent work on the ruins,
and to Mr. F. I. Dunn and Mr. J. P. Greene for discussion of the
church's architectural history.